Discover Montepulciano Cathedral

The Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta is the principal Catholic place of worship in Montepulciano, in the province of Siena, and belongs to the diocese of Montepulciano-Chiusi-Pienza.

It was built to a design by the Orvietan architect Ippolito Scalza and completed in 1680 — the sources differ on the start, giving either 1586 or 1594. It was solemnly consecrated on 19 June 1712 by Francesco Maria Arrighi, bishop of Montepulciano.

It rose on the site of the ancient pieve di Santa Maria, whose plebanial rights — acquired around the year 1000 — had themselves come from an older church outside the castle walls, where the church of San Biagio stands today.

The only surviving structure of that ancient pieve is the massive bell tower, in travertine ashlar and brick, built in the third quarter of the 15th century by Iacomo and Checco di Meo da Settignano. Its apex was never completed, and neither was the cathedral's salient façade.

Inside, a Latin cross plan in three naves carries, over the high altar, the monumental Trittico dell'Assunta painted by Taddeo di Bartolo in 1401.

A late-Renaissance cathedral with a Florentine interior, a Quattrocento tower it inherited, and a front it never received.

Scalza's design

The cathedral was built to a design by Ippolito Scalza of Orvieto and completed in 1680. The attribution matters: this is a named architect from outside, brought to a town that had been Florence's forward position until 1559 and had lost its strategic value afterwards.

What was never finished, and what was

The façade, of salient form, is unfinished — and so is the apical part of the bell tower, with its slender bell-chamber mullioned windows. But the flanks were completed: faced in brick and travertine ashlar and articulated by Tuscan pilasters between which round arches are inserted.

That asymmetry of completion is the most informative thing about the building. Sides get finished because they are structurally continuous with the build; a façade is a separate, expensive, purely representational campaign, and it is the first thing to be deferred. It was deferred permanently.

The inherited tower

The bell tower is the only surviving structure of the ancient pieve, built in the third quarter of the 15th century by Iacomo and Checco di Meo da Settignano in travertine ashlar and brick. So the oldest fabric on the cathedral belongs to the church the cathedral replaced — and it was already unfinished when it was inherited.

The interior

The framework is of clear Florentine descent, and the source identifies exactly what gives it its character: the clarity of plastered surfaces alternating with stone-ashlar wall facings. Austere and elegant, by contrast rather than by ornament.

The plan is a Latin cross in three naves, divided by powerful pillars supporting round arches. Over the central nave, the transepts and the apsidal scarsella, raised entablatures support a barrel vault; at the crossing of the two orthogonal bodies the corner pendentives support the drum on which the dome is set. The side naves are covered by groin vaults, with barrel-vaulted chapels opening at each bay.

One piece of furniture is placed rather than built: the pulpit, set against a right-hand pillar and carried on small Ionic columns.

The Triptych as the interior's focus

The architecture is deliberately plain, which makes Taddeo di Bartolo's Trittico dell'Assunta of 1401 the single point the whole space converges on. A 15th-century Sienese altarpiece in a 17th-century Florentine-framed interior is a mismatch of two centuries, and it works because everything around it is grey, white and quiet.

A church built over another church, keeping its tower, and left without a face.

Inheriting rights from the valley

Before any of this, the plebanial rights acquired around the year 1000 by the pieve di Santa Maria came from an older church outside the castle walls — where San Biagio is today. The religious authority moved uphill into the town before the cathedral existed, and the cathedral is its third address.

The tower comes first, in the 15th century

Iacomo and Checco di Meo da Settignano built the bell tower in the third quarter of the Quattrocento, in travertine ashlar and brick, for the pieve. They did not finish it: the apical part was never completed.

The cathedral replaces the pieve, from 1586 or 1594

Construction began on Ippolito Scalza's design on the site of the pieve, which came down — except for the tower. Keeping a Quattrocento campanile and building a new cathedral around it is a decision about money as much as about reverence: a tower is the most expensive single element of a church, and this one was already standing.

On the start date the record forks. The article on the building says 1586; the article on the town says 1594. This page does not choose.

Finished in 1680, without a front

Both sources agree the cathedral was completed in 1680 — roughly a century of building. The flanks received their facing of brick and travertine ashlar with Tuscan pilasters and round arches. The façade did not, and still has not.

Consecrated thirty-two years later, in 1712

The church was solemnly consecrated on 19 June 1712 by Francesco Maria Arrighi, bishop of Montepulciano. The gap between completion and consecration is itself telling: the building was in use long before it was formally dedicated.

Furnished from older churches

The contents arrived from elsewhere. A number of the works come from the ancient pieve and from other Montepulciano churches — including Taddeo di Bartolo's Triptych of 1401, which predates the cathedral by nearly two centuries and was installed over its high altar.

Why is the façade bare brick?

Because it was never finished. The cathedral's façade, of salient form, is unfinished — the structural brick was meant to be faced in stone and never was. The apex of the bell tower was never completed either. The flanks, by contrast, were finished, in brick and travertine ashlar with Tuscan pilasters, which is what makes the contrast so pointed.

When was it built?

Completed in 1680, to a design by the Orvietan architect Ippolito Scalza. On the start the sources disagree: the article on the building says 1586, the article on the town 1594, so this page asserts neither. It was solemnly consecrated on 19 June 1712 by Francesco Maria Arrighi, bishop of Montepulciano — thirty-two years after it was finished.

What is the big altarpiece?

The Trittico dell'Assunta, painted by Taddeo di Bartolo in 1401 and standing over the high altar. Read the three central scenes from the bottom up as a sequence in time: the twelve apostles round the Virgin's empty tomb, the Madonna Assunta surrounded by angels, and her Coronation. The side panels show saints in adoration, the four dividing pillars carry twelve Doctors of the Church, three apiece, the Annunciation spans the top, and the predella shows nine scenes of the life of Christ.

Why is the bell tower older than the cathedral?

Because it was inherited. The tower is the only surviving structure of the ancient pieve di Santa Maria that stood here before, built in the third quarter of the 15th century by Iacomo and Checco di Meo da Settignano in travertine ashlar and brick. When the cathedral replaced the pieve, the tower was kept.

Are there opening hours or a ticket?

Neither is published anywhere we can verify, so this page states none. It is a working cathedral. Go in the morning, and if an exact hour matters, call the municipality — which is on the same square, at Piazza Grande 1, on 0578 7121.

What is the connection to San Biagio?

A direct one. The cathedral rose on the site of the ancient pieve di Santa Maria, whose plebanial rights, acquired around the year 1000, came from an older church outside the castle walls — on the spot where the church of San Biagio stands today. The town's religious authority began down in the fields and moved up to the ridge.

What is the interior like?

Deliberately austere. The framework is of clear Florentine descent and its elegance comes from plastered surfaces alternating with stone-ashlar facings. A Latin cross in three naves on powerful pillars under round arches, with barrel vaults over nave, transepts and apsidal scarsella, groin vaults over the aisles, barrel-vaulted chapels at every bay, a dome on corner pendentives at the crossing, and a pulpit on small Ionic columns against a right-hand pillar.